Tankwa Padstal: The Place Where A Car Fell From The Sky And The Food Is A Gift From The Heavens

Nearly 100km from Ceres on Route 355 sits an oasis of curiosities that will have you tilting your head from side-toside trying to make sense of it. There sure are a lot of surprises in the Karoo, writes Herman Eloff.

As soon as we hit the gravel road coming from Ceres' side, we pull over to let some air out of the tyres.

Adonkey cart trots past us with two donkeys, a driver, and a single passenger There's no other soul in sight.

Before we left town, we stopped for carrot cake and a braaibroodjie at the cosy coffee shop on the main road through town, where two local ladies were celebrating a dual "babatee" (baby shower) in the

Corner

We're about to journey down SouthAfrica's longest gravel road, perhaps best known as the path to the legendaryAfrika Burn festival. But we won't dance around fires or run wild without an "onderbroek" (underwear).

We're off to theTankwa Padstal, also serving as waterpoint 4 for the News24 Karoo Burn this weekend.

Just a few months ago, this same road was flooded to the point that canoeing down it was the preferred mode of transport.

Mud puddles and washed-away lanes of sand are the only evidence left behind.

"You must see the videos online," Susan Lange from the Padstal tells us of the

December floods, which she captured on camera.

The first thing you see when approaching Route 355's oasis is a giant silver UFO crashed into a hillside. Some say it landed there one night; others claim Susan and her hubby, Hein, erected it on 17 June 2021 as a tourist attraction. I guess we'll never know

The next thing to catch your eye is Wynkaptein.The 1979 Peugeot 504GR looks like it fell from the sky and got buried head-first into the ground like a nervous ostrich hiding from the world. With its backside in the air, the powder blue car has provided shelter from the sun since 2017.

TheTankwa Padstal is a little bit Tarantino and a little bit Sons of Anarchy

Behind the bikes and the bakkies stands the general dealer, a roadside restaurant, and a bar named Werkswinkel (Workshop).

Visitors usually work their way through from the front to the back, where they end up in the Werskwinkel to talk shop and share road trip stories.

In-between welcoming cyclists to the waterpoint, we order one of Susan's legendary beef burgers with chunky chips and a Twizza (like a Coke but much sweeter).

When your order is ready, you'll get a call over the loudspeaker, guaranteed to shake loose nostalgia from running barefoot at primary school sports days.News24